Cantiaci 1st Century BC Torc Head Pegasus Silver Unit *Extremely rare*
£1,850.00
Cantiaci
1st Century BC Torc Head Pegasus Silver Unit
Extremely rare, 17 known
ABC 219, 11mm, 1.18g
A wonderful Ancient British portrait with much character.
Obverse
Head right, big ear, torc around neck.
Reverse
Pegasus right.
Comments
Sills DK 73: Coinage of Kent, Uninscribed Issues; Type: Triple Rosette and Pegasus Issues; Silver. This series is hard to place but seems to be related to Vosenos and Sam Pegasus, and so may post-date Dubnovellaunos. The Torc Head is clearly related to the Canterbury Lion bronze with near-identical bust. Pegasus has a ringed pellet either side of the wing and another between the legs, like the Pegasus quarters of the Triple Rosette and Pegasus series and are part of the same issue.
Provenance
This coin is from The London Collection of Ancient British Coins. For more information click here: The London Collection – Silbury Coins : Silbury Coins.
Found Kent, 2008.
This coin comes with a previous label.
Cantiaci
‘Of all the Britons the inhabitants of Kent, an entirely maritime district, are by far the most civilised, differing but little from the Gallic manner of life.’
Caesar, De Bello Gallico, book V, chapter 13.
The modern county of Kent was, according to the Romans, the homeland of the Cantiaci or Cantii. The closest portion of mainland Britain to the Continent, it is unsurprising that in the Late Iron Age the region boasted strong links with north-east France – a legacy maintained to this day, one could argue, with the continued importance of Dover and Folkestone as key cross-channel ferry ports.
Kent’s earliest Iron Age coins (and indeed, probably the earliest indigenously-produced British coins) are represented by cast bronze pieces called potins, whose alloy has a high tin content. On the basis of single finds and hoards, we know that imported gold in the form of Gallo-Belgic coinage was widely used in Kent at around the same time as the potins.
The somewhat mysterious series of uninscribed Kentish gold, including the so-called ‘Weald Net’ staters (ABC 177/BMC 2466) and ‘Corded Triangle’ quarter staters (ABC 198/BMC 2469–71) were probably struck c. 50–30/25 BC, they perhaps slightly precede a diverse group of uninscribed silver and bronze issues.
Inscribed issues belong towards the end of the Kentish coin-sequence, as is invariably the general case in Late Iron Age Britain. Their production probably began from c. 25 BC onwards and runs onward till shortly before the Claudian invasion. It is worth noting that at this time, Kent seems to have been taken over to varying extents by rulers from neighbouring regions. These rulers in turn came to issue coins in the region, even though they themselves might not originate from it, nor it reflect their main power-base.
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